


something good

by blushandbooks



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: F/M, The Sound of Music References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 10:13:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29258748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blushandbooks/pseuds/blushandbooks
Summary: julie and luke find a movie they can both bond over: the sound of music.
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 31
Kudos: 167





	something good

**Author's Note:**

> i got an ask on tumblr about a sound of music au, and this is what came of it instead. title is the same as the song "something good" from the film, and obviously, Rest In Peace Christopher Plummer. You ripping a N*zi flag in half was the peak of cinema.

One of Julie’s favorite films when she was younger was  _ The Sound Of Music. _

Every year around Christmas, when ABC would play it, Julie and her mom would curl up on their couch in their fuzziest pajamas under a fort constructed of blankets and pillows for a screening of the classic film where every time watching it felt like the first time. The two women would giggle along with the nuns complaining about Maria, sit dead still at  _ Something Good _ , and dance around the room to _ Do-Re-Mi _ . 

Through warm mugs of cocoa and stolen plates of cookies, Julie’s most nostalgic and joyful memories of her childhood are watching that film with her mom. It was about the loving and healing powers of music, and if anybody was music, it was Rose. 

When Rose died, and the music in their home along with it, Julie tried watching the film alone in her room. 

She cried through the opening credits, turned it off, and hasn’t seen the movie since. 

This year was her first holiday season with the band. And one day, as her and Luke sat curled up on the couch one night while Ray and Carlos were at a baseball game and the boys were elsewhere, Julie was trying to write some lyrics in Luke’s songbook as he distractedly flipped through the TV guide. 

_ “The Sound Of Music? _ Holy shit, I love this movie! Have you ever seen it?”

The twinkle in Luke’s eyes and his enthusiasm about the film briefly draws Julie’s attention away from the reminder of her mother, and towards the fact that they’ve finally found a movie they have in common. 

With her heart in her stomach, Julie musters a smile. “Really?”

“Yeah, uh,” he runs his hand along his neck adorably, “my mom actually liked it a lot. We used to watch it together. It was like, the only thing musical she liked.” She waits for him to finish his thought. “I used to think that if we watched it enough, and she saw how important music was to people, that she’d be more okay with me wanting to be a musician.”

He doesn’t say it as sad as it sounds. But Julie’s heart, despite already sinking, cracks right down the middle at the thought of Luke still seeking his mom’s approval despite their arguments and disagreements. 

Putting the journal on the coffee table, she gives herself permission to comfort him and find comfort in him; shifting closer and closer until her knee is pressed into his thigh. 

“It was something you guys could share,” she reassures him. “At least there’s happy memories tied to it, right? You and your mom and music.”

His eyes are transfixed on their touching legs, and he tears them away with his bottom lip tucked tight between his teeth. “Yeah, I guess so, Jules.” She watches his hand hesitantly slide towards her knee; pointer finger barely grazing the fabric of her sweats. “What about you? You’ve seen it?”  
  
Since they’re trading mom stories, she may as well be honest. 

She would always be honest with him. 

“Yeah, they play it every year,” she informs him with an unnecessarily hushed voice. The whole house is empty, but he’s right in front of her with his kind eyes and soft mouth and she feels like too loud a volume would pop their bubble. “My mom and I used to watch it together. She loved it.”

“Shit, Jules, I’m sorry -- you probably don’t want to watch it-”

“No, please. Put it on.”

If she’s being honest, she doesn’t know how she is going to make it through. The chances that she will sob on multiple occasions are high, but a little piece of her heart insists that it will be okay. 

She can make new, happy memories with Luke. He’s here, he wants to watch it with her, and maybe he can catch the tears as they fall. 

With another reassuring look, Luke raises the remote in his hand, about to press on the film. “Are you sure?”

Already choked up, she nods. “I’m sure. Do you want some cocoa?”

Before he could even give her an answer, she was on her feet and fleeing to the kitchen to heat up some water. 

Luke, catching into her definite discomfort, frowns despite himself. He would give everything he has, even though all of his possessions are essentially hers anyways, to drain her of the overwhelming grief that hits her from time to time. They’re a team. She never fails to make him the happiest he’s ever been, and he desperately wishes that he had her powers. 

The opening credits are almost over when he hears her pouring the cocoa in mugs, shifts to get more comfortable, and drags a throw blanket down from the back of the couch to make the setting more comfortable. 

With a pink nose, Julie returns grasping two steaming mugs of hot chocolate and wearing a small, simple smile. Luke rushes to help her ease the cups onto coasters before clearing his throat and holding up the blanket to his side, eyes glancing between her and the empty couch cushion. 

“Wanna get comfy?”

He doesn’t have to ask her twice. 

Relieved, she relaxes onto the sofa and leans fully into his side. She doesn’t hesitate to latch her right arm across his stomach while he lets his own dangle over her shoulders and keep her completely pressed against him. 

He adjusts the blanket to cover the two of them, and he momentarily wishes that things could be like this all of the time. Her in his arms and a movie that the both of them love playing on a warm night when they are the only two people in the world. 

Unknown to him, Julie feels the same way. The rhythmic back-and-forth movements of Luke’s hand down her back almost coaxes her into sleep, where he would inhabit every corner of her dreams. But Julie Andrews’ voice keeps her wide awake and holding onto him in case he disappears on her, leaving her to watch alone, just like her mom. 

She makes it without crying until _Favorite Things_ hits, and she is flooded with the pain of missing her mother. After Rose had died, Julie tried one too many times to take the advice of the song and think about her favorite things -- all of which brought her back to thinking about her mother. 

Needless to say, it didn’t work for her. 

Luke doesn’t turn the movie off, nor does Julie insist he does so; only draping her legs across his lap to come closer and pressing her forehead into his chest so that he can fix everything. Soak up the hurt and dispose of it like it was never there in the first place; bringing Julie the joy that she never knew until she met him. 

_New favorite thing that doesn’t make her want to cry her eyes out:_ Luke Patterson. 

“It’s alright,” he coos into her ear, “take a deep breath. Storm’s over. I’m right here.”

Even when her tears stop, she doesn’t remove her head from his chest. She likes it there. 

When _Edelweiss_ starts, Luke is eager to tell her about how it’s one of the first songs he learned on his acoustic so that he could sing it to his mom. She liked music when he was playing that song, he tells Julie, and would request for him to perform at book clubs and family parties. 

“You should sing it for me one day,” she murmurs into his t-shirt. “It’s probably beautiful when you sing it.”

Running his fingers through a few strands of her curls, he finds himself smiling as the Captain and Maria lock eyes during his performance. “Yeah, maybe later.”

Both of them find themselves so comfortable in their position that they only move to be closer to each other. Luke’s left hand finds itself rubbing at the exposed skin of Julie’s ankle from one of her legs that is crossed over his lap, and Julie is curled so far into him that her whole left side is touching his right side. 

Where one of them begins and the other ends, neither of them could tell you. 

They are completely devoted to their position by the time that Maria and Captain von Trapp are professing their love for each other as rain pours around them, both starting to sing _Something Good._

It strikes Luke particularly hard that despite the countless mistakes he made, the universe still gave him Julie -- probably when he didn’t deserve it. 

_“Nothing comes from nothing,”_ he faintly hums along during the chorus, “ _nothing ever could. So somewhere in my youth, or childhood; I must have done something good._ ”

_“For here you are, standing here, loving me;”_ Julie joins him in perfect harmony, _“whether or not you should; so somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.”_

Her voice wrapped around his takes his breath away. Them, using their first language of music to express their love and devotion and gratefulness for the other; Julie feeling Luke’s voice vibrating through his chest and him hearing her body hum under his hands. 

She appreciates him, for sitting there and letting her tears soak into his tank top and not uttering a word about it. He’s thankful for her cuddling into him and forgiving him for his mistakes and for making him feel more alive than he’s ever known. They don’t know what they did to deserve each other. But the universe made its choice -- and they aren’t complaining. 

When the song ends, and they sit still as Maria and Captain von Trapp gaze at each other like the other person is the only thing worth staring at, Julie sits up in Luke’s embrace. 

Slowly, she lets her right hand wander from his chest to his neck; a single finger brushing his cheek. “I wonder what I did to get you,” she thinks aloud, barely even considering her words -- too distracted by his eyes. 

A smile breaks across his lips. 

“I ask myself that every day, Julie,” he tells her, shaking his head incredulously. 

Even in this moment, this moment of them walking on the edge of a confession, a grim thought makes its way, unrelenting, into Julie’s mind. Tears that had previously dried return to her eyes at full force. 

“I’m sorry you had to die,” her voice shakes, now an octave higher. There’s a monologue on the tip of her tongue: Selfishly happy he’s there, apologizing for his strange afterlife limbo, wishing that things were different… 

But all that comes out is “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, you had to die.”

She doesn’t know where the guilt is coming from. That if fate wanted him to come to her, and he had to die for it to happen -- would she have wanted it if she had the option?

A hand, larger than hers, runs along her scalp and through her hair. “Don’t cry,” Luke tries to calm her, “please don’t cry. Julie-”

He takes a deep breath. Maybe he’s the one with a monologue. 

“Julie, I don’t-” The words catch in his throat. “I don’t know how to say it. I don’t regret a thing. I don’t resent the fact that I died. Everything, _everything,_ that’s happened -- it brought me to you. Dying, the stolen music, your mom… All of it. It was all bringing me here. And even if I was given the option, _I would want you_ . You _have_ to know that.”

With damp cheeks and a stuffy nose, Julie adjusts herself so that she can fling her arms around Luke’s neck and feel his cheek pressed against hers. He sniffles a little, too, and it only makes her more inclined to let out a quiet cry. 

Again, she wonders into the silence: _“What did I do to get you?”_

Luke’s arms tighten around her waist, holding her close enough so that he felt confident that she was right there, in front of him, acting like _she_ was the lucky one. She has it all backwards. 

But maybe that’s the way that fate intended it -- a two-way street. He always likes to think of himself as this guy in love with a girl completely out of his league, but there’s a piece of him that helped her. Maybe all of his cheerleading made a mark. 

Maybe she needed him like he needed her. 

At the thought, all he can do is pull her impossibly closer while the classic film runs in the background, and kiss her temple to try and communicate the depth of his feelings. 

“I don’t know what we did,” he whispers into her hair. “I don’t think I could do anything to deserve you.”

A weak hand slaps his arm as Julie pulls away to look at him, eye to eye. “Don’t say that. You did something. _We_ did something.”

Luke doesn’t even know how to respond to that. How does one thank the universe for rewarding an unknown action and giving him to Julie? How does he thank Julie for consistently reinforcing his worth?

He does the only thing he can impulsively and stupidly think of. 

He leans in, slow and gentle, giving her the opportunity to back out -- and presses his lips to hers. His hand is cupped softly behind her neck and her hands grip tightly at his shoulders, but she responds quickly, and there is just so much love he wants to show her that he doesn’t know how. 

“Is this okay?” He mumbles into her mouth as she leans back in for more. Her tears have since dried, and her hands are moving to his hair, and she hums against him to say _yes, this is okay, this is very okay_. 

He can’t find it in himself to deny himself of this any more, because like Julie said: He did something to deserve this. 

And if this is what the universe is offering, he will selfishly take advantage of every opportunity, because he couldn’t deny Julie Molina of anything less than what the universe has decided _she_ deserves.


End file.
